Gunnison Island should it be a ranked peak?

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Gunnison Island should it be a ranked peak?

Postby Scott Patterson » Sun Nov 13, 2022 11:20 pm

I don't know what LiDAR says, but this summit might be ranked now:

https://www.listsofjohn.com/peak/24376

The Great Salt Lake would have to drop below 4192 to make this a ranked peak and it has (unfortunately) been that low for a while now:

http://greatsalt.uslakes.info/Level.asp

This is an interesting one since its ranked status could vary by month. It seems unlikely that the peak will become unranked anytime soon unless the drought is gone.
Last edited by Scott Patterson on Mon Nov 14, 2022 10:51 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Gunnison Island should be a ranked peak

Postby JoeGrim » Mon Nov 14, 2022 12:43 pm

Great find, Scott!

Based on the topographic map and lake elevation you provide, I would say it's ranked.

I've downloaded the LiDAR data for this island and will try to analyze it later this week, so we can verify the summit elevation and determine with certainty if it's ranked.

Joe
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Re: Gunnison Island should be a ranked peak

Postby JoeGrim » Mon Nov 14, 2022 7:03 pm

I was too curious about if this was ranked, so I went ahead and processed the LiDAR data. It turns out it is not ranked.

The summit elevation is 4487', when neglecting what appears to be a man-made wind break in Google aerial imagery, which is 1' higher; it shows up as a nearly-circular ring of higher elevation in LiDAR data too.

More importantly, the lake level is so low that Gunnison "Island" is no longer an island, so its saddle is now exposed above water level. Even back at the time the LiDAR data were retrieved, it was no longer an island, and I found the saddle elevation to be 4196'. So, its prominence is only 291'.

Sorry that it didn't work out to be ranked; I was really hoping it was. I'll submit this data to John for him to include in his LiDAR database.
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Re: Gunnison Island should be a ranked peak

Postby Scott Patterson » Mon Nov 14, 2022 7:54 pm

Thanks for the LiDAR analysis. This was an interesting one for sure.

Any interest in doing an analysis on this one? This one is interesting since different maps disagree on which point os ranked. There are three points on the ridge, all within 4 feet of each other.

https://www.liststofjohn.com/mobile/peak/18550

I guess I need to learn this LiDAR thing and start helping with the analysis.
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Re: Gunnison Island should be a ranked peak

Postby JoeGrim » Mon Nov 14, 2022 9:09 pm

I'm currently working on LiDAR analyses of peaks closer to my home, but if you would like to learn to do the LiDAR analysis yourself, Eli Boardman has an excellent tutorial at: https://www.14ers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=61156 Feel free to ask for help if you try it, as it takes some practice and experience to learn how to discern between ground pixels and non-ground pixels (e.g., bushes, rock cairns, or man-made objects.) I would also be happy to double-check your work on a few peaks, so you can verify you're doing it correctly.
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